Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S edge Plus at home

Samsung unveils Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S edge Plus at home. August. 21, 2015 07:15. jhk85@donga.com.

The strategic smart phones of Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge Plus (edge+), which are expected to drive Samsung’s performance in the second half of the year were launched on Thursday. Having to take the premium smart phone market prior to Apple who is introducing its new iPhone next month, Samsung put lower prices on the two models than its previous ones.

Galaxy Note 5 for 32 GB storage comes out from a factory at 899,900 Korean won (approx. 755 U.S. dollars) and for 64GB at 965,800 won (approx. 810 dollars). Galaxy S6 edge+ comes only with 32GB at 939,400 won (approx. 788 dollars). This is the first time that the factory price of the product is below 900,000 won (approx. 755 dollars) among Galaxy Note series. Galaxy S6 edge+ came out with a lower price tag than April model at 979,000 won (approx. 822 dollars).

With announced and additional grants, one can buy the Galaxy Note 5 with 32GB storage for the lowest price range of 500,000 won (approx. 420 dollars). The announced grants differ by mobile carriers. Along with the most expensive plan, LG Uplus offers the largest grants of 285,000 won (approx. 239 dollars) (New plan of unlimited voice call video 100), followed by KT at 281,000 won (approx. 235 dollars) (LTE Data 999 plan) and SK telecom at 248,000 won (approx. 208 dollars) (Band data 100). On top of these, one can enjoy additional grants (15 percent) from agencies of three mobile carriers: 42,750 won (approx. 36 dollars) from LG Uplus, 42,150 won (approx. 35 dollars) from KT and 37,200 won (approx. 31 dollars) from SK Telecom. Opting for LG Uplus, the model comes with the lowest price tag of 572,050 won (approx. 481 dollars).

Samsung Pay, a mobile wallet service that the company has worked on, was also launched on the day, which is available only in Korea, alluding a full-scale war in the second half of the year. Introducing Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ in America on Friday (local time), Samsung will have a month of trial service period for Samsung Pay before it officially launches the service on October 28.

The biggest selling point of Samsung Pay is that it’s equipped not only with near field communication (NFC) same as Apple Pay but also with magnetic secure transmission (MST), allowing its buyers to use it at affiliate member stores of most credit firms. Apple Pay, on the other hand, is less versatile since it can only be used in stores with NFC payment terminals. According to InfoScout, a global market survey firm, some 13.1 percent Americans use Apply Pay as of June, down from 15.1 percent on March while 19 percent of its users were rejected the service, up from 15 percent.

The newly-introduced two models are equipped with Samsung Pay. Those who own the previous model of Galaxy S6 could use Samsung Pay through software upgrade. Customers of Woori Bank, in particular, can use it in withdrawing cash from automated teller machine of the bank.